The Jesus Manifesto (Matthew 5:1-12)
6-24-18
Chenoa Baptist Church
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Your Wife Ain’t Your Momma!
Have you ever had a sermon dramatically change your life? Has a sermon ever rocked your soul to the point that you still remember it years later?
The year was 1995. I had been married three years to my little red headed girl and if you had asked me to rate myself as a husband I would have given myself an eight out of ten. But one sermon changed all of that.
My father-in-law and I were at Promise Keepers in Atlanta when an African American pastor named Wellington Boone rose to speak. I’ll never forget his first sentence – “Your Wife Ain’t Your Momma!” The Holy Spirit used that sermon to confront my pride, challenge my priorities, and change my heart. It was a gut punch and I walked out of the arena in tears. Eight out ten? More like a two out of ten!
Pastor Boone didn’t give us a “to-do” list to be a better husband. He spent his time from Scripture giving us a “to-be” list. What are the character traits of a husband that loves his wife as Christ loved the church? Even though it was hard to hear, I was also encouraged that God was interested in making me a much better husband. Maxine is still a fan of Dr. Boone!
Jesus’ To-Be List
This morning, we will begin a sermon series, a journey through Jesus’ “to-be list.” We will be looking at the greatest sermon ever preached. It was Augustine who gave it the name that we call it today, “The Sermon on the Mount.” We will be concentrating this summer on what are known as The Beatitudes. This section is only 107 words in the Greek. It’s short but incredibly powerful. In this section of Jesus’ first extended discourse, we will find what Tim Keller calls, an “upside down Kingdom.” Jesus gives us a picture of Kingdom life. He doesn’t give us a to-do list. It’s much deeper than that. These are the characteristics that a Christian exhibits in a lost and dying world.
Let me give you a couple of challenges before we begin.
First, I want to challenge you to memorize these twelve verses. Read them every day. It will only take a couple of minutes. Write them on an index card and carry it with you. If David can memorize the entire book of Jonah, you can do this!
Second, never miss a Sunday! I know it’s summer and you will be out of town on vacation at some point. But if you are in town, be here. You are not going to want to miss this!
Lastly, invite a friend. Invite two friends. Pray and asked the Holy Spirit to give you boldness to invite that neighbor, coworker, or family member. I came to Christ, because Aaron Teaford invited me and then befriended me.
I’m as excited as I’ve ever been about this sermon series. We are going to learn a lot, God is going to challenge us deeply, and we will grow as a result.
Prayer/Scripture Reading
The Text in Context
When studying a text, we must always keep in the text in its context. So let me set the stage for you. I’m not going to assume you now everything about the Bible.
Matthew was one of Jesus’ disciples. He was originally known as Levi and he was a tax collector. This meant he was a traitor to his country, collected taxes for the Roman government, and pocketed a lot of extra cash for himself. Tax collectors were despised and marginalized. But Jesus called him and changed his name and destiny.
His book is what we call a “Gospel,” the story of Jesus for a Jewish audience. How do we know that? Matthew contains more Old Testament Scriptures than all the other Gospels (Mark, Luke, John). Matthew had a theme to his writing – the Kingdom of God.
In the first four chapters, Matthew introduces us to Jesus as the long awaited King. In chapters 4-16, Matthew paints a vivid picture of what this King’s mission was. We see Him preach his first sermon, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” Jesus teaches with authority and heals and extends for forgiveness to those who have “ears to hear.”
In chapters 16-28, Matthew takes us through His last days, trial, crucifixion, resurrection, and His final charge to His disciples.
There are five long discourses, or sermons, in Matthew and this is the longest one.
The Sermon on the Mount is found in chapters 5-7. Matthew begins with the genealogy of Jesus and what we would call the “Christmas story.” Jesus is born in Bethlehem, but has to escape Herod’s murderous rampage by fleeing to Egypt. (By the way, Jesus was a refuge). They return to Israel where they settle down in a little backwoods town named Nazareth.
At the age of thirty, He begins His public ministry by having His cousin John baptize Him in the Jordan River. He is then lead by the Spirit into the desert, where He is tempted for forty days. After this showdown with satan, He starts calling His disciples and moves out into the public arena to preach. Matthew ends chapter four with a summary statement about what Jesus’ mission was:
“And He went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So Him fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought Him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and He healed them. And great crowds followed Him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. (Matthew 4:23-25)
That sets the stage for us to turn to Matthew chapter five. We will be looking at verses one and two today and I want to give you an overview of where we are going in the next months.
Jesus’ first sermon
I remember my first sermon. I was twenty-three years old and the pastor at our little chapel couldn’t be there that morning. I was asked to preach. I was terrified and rambled through the text. It was terrible. A friend tried to console and encouragement me. He said, “You’ll get better.” For some reason, this did not encourage me at all!
John Stott said this about the sermon: “The Sermon on the Mountain is probably the best known part of the teaching of Jesus, though arguably it’s the least understood, and certainly the least obeyed.”
“Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, His disciples came to Him. And He opened His mouth and taught them, saying…” (Matthew 5:1-3a)
Jesus was starting to draw crowds wherever He went. If word got out that Jesus was around, people from all over would close up shop and head out to see Him. He was a “magic man.” He could heal and cast our demons. People brought their sick family members and friends. They weren’t sure what He was all about. Some people whispered He could be the Messiah. Some wanted to make Him King. He was a King, just not the kind they thought He was.
Jesus saw an opportunity to paint a picture of what life in His Kingdom would look like. Matthew says that He went up on the mountain. Now this is really a little bit of an exaggeration to call this a mountain. When we lived in North Carolina, I would say how much I loved the mountains. Maxine would always roll her eyes and say, “These aren’t mountains.” We went to visit her father in Colorado, and as we drove from the airport to Denver, Maxine smiled and pointed out the window and said, “Now, those are mountains!”
This was a small hill about 331 ft high, (sermon on the mound?), rising gently away from the See of Galilee. This area was a natural amphitheater in which hundreds if not thousands could easily hear Him.
He sat down. Such a small detail but so important. When rabbis wanted to teach authoritatively, they would sit and their disciples would gather around them. And that’s exactly what happened. But it wasn’t just the twelve. There were many others that were disciples and then, outside of that circle, would have been the crowd.
Who would have been in the crowd? There were Pharisees, who were the traditionalists. Also, Sadducees, who were liberals, according to the Pharisees. There were Essenes, who were separatists. The Zealots, who carried daggers with them so they could slit the neck of the Romans. And Herodians, a small, and understandably, hated group that supported Herod.
Let me stop here and make an observation. The Sermon on the Mount was given to His disciples. There is no Gospel presentation in it because Jesus was already speaking to committed followers. This teaching was not a ethical demand for the society in which He lived. It was a charge to His followers about what kind of Kingdom citizens they were to be.
Matthew also gives us this weird little phrase, “and He opened His mouth.” Well of course He opened his mouth. You have to do that to teach. But there is much more going on here.
Remember that Matthew is writing to a Jewish audience. Jesus goes up on a mountain. Who else went up on a mountain? Who else had to be hidden from a murderous leader when he was a child? That’s right, Moses. But while Moses went on the mountain and God opened His mouth and gave him the Law, now Jesus would go up on a mountain, open His mouth, and take the Law to a whole new level.
The crowd was excited to hear what Jesus had to say. They were living under Roman occupation and were waiting for the Messiah to come, overthrow Rome, and restore the Kingdom of Israel to its former glory.
But when Jesus began with, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God” you could have probably heard a pin drop. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Heads were turning and people couldn’t believe their ears. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” At that, I can just imagine some in the crowd turning and walking away. “Daddy, why are we leaving?” “He is not who we thought he was son.”
This kingdom is so radically different than what they thought. He was taking everything and turning it upside down. Those that did stick around for the whole sermon were blown away:
“And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at His teachings, for He was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.” (Matthew 7:28)
We have to remember that to the crowds He was Jesus bar Joseph. He was raised in Nazareth. People knew his parents and siblings. He was a homeless, self-proclaimed rabbi who had assembled a motley crew of college age kids as His entourage. Yes, could heal people but what gave Him the right to say these things? Later on in the sermon, He actually quotes Scripture and says, “You have heard it said…but I say to you.” Who does this guy think he is? Exactly. He is King inaugurating His kingdom. And He has a lot to say about what the citizens of this Kingdom are to look like. And it looks nothing like the world in which they live in, or that we live in for that matter.
Blessed Be
Over the next nine weeks, we will be studying these verses. Today, I want to give you an overview and then a couple of challenges. We need to make sure we understand what Jesus was saying and the words He chose to use.
The first eleven verses are called the Beatitudes. The word “beatitude” comes from the Latin and means, “blessed.” There are eight beatitudes and they all begin with this word, “blessed.” They are a package deal. You can’t pick and chose. The first four deal with our vertical relationship with God and the second four deal with our horizontal relationship with others.
If the Sermon on the Mount is the Constitution for Christianity then the Beatitudes are the Preamble.
It is critical to understand how radical this was. The crowds were used to getting a verbal beating by the Scribes and the Pharisees and walking away feeling guilty and hopeless. But Jesus begins his sermon with the word blessed. This is very different and the effect was palpable.
Oswald Chambers said that the Beatitudes are lovely and poetic” and just when you aren’t ready for it, “they hit you like spiritual torpedoes.”
Jesus will begin his sermon by answering the questions, “what does it mean to be blessed?” and “who is it that is blessed in His kingdom?”
The word “blessed” is a very misunderstood word in this culture. It’s a “churchy” word. How are you doing? “Oh, I’m blessed.” In the south, it can actually be used as a insult. If someone was very smart, you would say, “Well, bless their hearts.”
In this culture, we oftentimes define blessing in financial terms. Unfortunately, this has crept into the church with the prosperity Gospel. If you are healthy, wealthy, and climbing that ladder, then you are blessed. But what if you aren’t any of those things? Have we somehow missed what Jesus was trying to tell us?
The comedian and actor Jim Carey once said, “I think everyone should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”
But the word, “blessed” in this context is deeper than what he usually use it. It is sometimes translated “happy” but that doesn’t do the Greek word justice. Happiness often times depends on circumstances. This is deeper. This is an inner satisfaction…that doesn’t depend on outward circumstances. Steve Andrews writes, “blessed is God’s favor extended to an individual, resulting in positive emotion or reward.”
“Blessed” is actually not used of human emotions at all. It is something that is given to the believer. At the very core of the word, it means “approved by God.” Max Lucado calls it, “the applause of heaven.”
God applauds the poor in spirit. ?He cheers the mourners. ?He favors the meek. ?He smiles upon the hungry. ?He honors the merciful. ?He welcomes the pure in heart. ?He claps for the peacemakers. ?He rises to greet the persecuted. – “The Applause of Heaven.”
Who are the ones who are blessed? They are fundamentally approved by God. They are the ones who take Jesus’ to-be list serious and put it into practice.
Now and Not Yet
There is an interesting dynamic going on in the Beatitudes. If you look at verse three and nine, they are in the present tense and the promise is the “kingdom of heaven.” Sandwiched between these two verses are four through eight that are in the future tense. There is a no and not yet tension to this part of the sermon. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you are a citizen of a different Kingdom. Those rights and privileges are ours by virtue of being born again and adopted into God’s family.
The promises of 4-8 are future but can also be experiences here and now. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Of course, we will be comforted in Heaven. He will wipe away every tear. But it is also a present reality because of the Holy Spirit, who comforts us as we mourn, particularly over our sin. John Piper writes, “If you have the Kingdom, these future blessing belong to you.”
Character Counts
Max Lucado said this about the Sermon:
“It is ‘sacred delight’ that Jesus promised in the Sermon on the Mount. To an unlikely cast of characters, Jesus makes incredible promises. But the eight characters mentioned are not individual people standing in line at the Blessing Bank waiting for the next teller. These eight blessed characters provide a mental picture of the process throughout which God leads every believer as we experience new life in Christ.”
Jesus doesn’t give the disciples and the crowd what we as humans love, a “to-do” list. We love to-do lists. Just tell me what to do and I get to it. Jesus instead gives us a ‘to-be” list. These virtues as how you will live as children of God.
We don’t follow the Beatitudes to try to earn God’s love. We live out these Beatitudes as
a result of our already being loved by God.
When we live these virtues out, when we seek the applause of heaven, we give the world around us a preview of what the coming Kingdom will be like. Our conduct flows out of our character. Our behavior flows out of our beliefs.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote his classic book, “The Cost of Discipleship” and based it on the Sermon on the Mount.
These character virtues were not prized in the Germany of his day and they aren’t prized in our culture as well. Many would call this “doormat” Christianity.
Nikita Kruschev said that he understood well the difference between a Christian and himself. He said, “If you slap a Christian, and he will turn the other check. If you slap me, I’ll hit you back so hard your head will fall off.”
This culture is having a heck of a time with the idea of character. Most public people seem to have an idea it’s okay to have a public character and then a private character. This lack of integrity has lead to a lot of soul searching.
David Brooks that we have two types of virtues in America – resume virtues and eulogy virtues. Our culture tends to focus on the resume virtues – your accomplishments and your possessions. But what we really need to concentrate on is the eulogy virtues. Those focus on character and relationships.
Every once and a while someone gets it right.
Chris Pratt is one of my favorite actors. He accepted the “Generations” award at the MTV awards and he had an opportunity to speak to the young actors that were coming behind him. He spoke on nine rules and many of them were silly, as he is, but he said this:
If you’re strong, be a protector, and if you’re smart, be a humble influencer…strength and intelligence can be weapons and do not wield them against the weak. That makes you a bully. Be bigger than that.”
He ended the speech with these words to a stunned Hollywood crowd:
Nobody is perfect. People are going to tell you you’re perfect just the way you are - you’re not. You’re imperfect…You always will be. But, there is a powerful force that designed you that way. And if you’re willing to accept that, you will have grace. And grace is a gift. And like the freedom that we enjoy in this country that grace was paid for with somebody else’s blood. Don’t forget it. Don’t take it for granted.”
Onwards and Upwards
I want to end with four reasons to study the Sermon on the Mount that John Stott taught his students:
1. We are going to study the Sermon on the Mount because it shows us the absolute necessity of the new birth.
The Beatitudes are impossible to keep. They are much like the Ten Commandments. They show us the depth of hopelessness and our need for Jesus. We can’t come near to this standard on our own. Only through a surrendered life in which the Holy Spirit empowers us can we begin to live as citizens of Jesus’ Kingdom.
It is my prayer that believers will be strengthened and those of you who are far from God will be encouraged to take a step toward the cross. We will also be challenged to really examine ourselves to see if we are actually born again or just a religious person.
Let me share with you one of my axioms, “Cows don’t lay eggs.” This means that non-Christians will not act like Christians. They can’t. They are spiritually dead. We cannot put our spiritual expectations on them. It’s not fair and it doesn’t work.
2. It points to the Lord Jesus. In fact, it can be rightly said that Jesus WAS the Sermon on the Mount. These virtues weren’t just taught by Jesus, He modeled them. Studying the sermon will help us get to know Him better.
3. It indicates the way to true blessing for Christians. While others want to tell you that God wants to bless you with a private jet, Jesus is saying I’d like to give you something far more valuable.
4. It shows us the way to please our Heavenly Father. And that’s really what our desire as Christians should be all about.
So what are we going to do over the next few weeks? We are going to love Jesus and others, we are going to learn about his “to-be” list, and we are going to live it out.
One of the most famous sermons preached in this generation was given by John Piper at Passion One Day with 40,000 college students in Memphis, TN in 1990. Many people point back to that sermon as moment they decide to be a pastor, or missionary, or teacher. It is estimated that thousands of people can trace their calling back to that day and that sermon.
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